Alec Gallup

Alec Gallup (1928-2009) was a prominent American pollster. Born in 1928 in Iowa City, Iowa, Gallup graduated from Iowa University in 1950 with a degree in Journalism. He continued his studies at Stanford University, doing graduate work in communications and journalism, as well as at New York University, where he studied marketing and advertising research. In 1959, he was hired by his father’s polling company, The Gallup Organization. Over the next few decades, Alec and his brother, George Gallup Jr., helped their father run the company. In 1976, Alec took a leading role on the company’s “Human Needs and Satisfaction” survey, one of the first comprehensive global surveys conducted. In 1984, George Gallup Sr. died and the running of the company was left to the brothers. From 1986 to 1996, Alec served as Co-Chairman of the Gallup Organization, taking on the integral role of writing and editing the questions for polls. As Co-Chairman he presided over the company’s transition when it was sold to Selection Research of Nebraska. In later years, Alec devoted much of his time to international polling, focusing particularly on the integrity of the polls. In 2003, he was instrumental in winning a Russian court case to stop several imposters from conducting Gallup Polls. Alec Gallup was known for being among the best in the business at ensuring question integrity and valid data interpretation.